@drval: "I'm actually going to stay away from Buzz for a while. I like keeping my email a separate world. Will jump in if it becomes relevant."
ePatientDave: "To me what Buzz means is that Google has permanently shown themselves not qualified to be in health data. Period."
EdBennett: "I'm moving away from all Google apps. it will take time and effort, but this latest gaffe has me worried"
I use Google for most of my online work and I am not planning to change this. However, I do appreciate an alternative point of view.
Comments:
Dean Giustini - Google is throwin' everything at us and I feel buried informationally. I also don't know the point of having Google Wave & Buzz in light of Twitter and all the microblogging aggregators. I never thought it would happen: I've reach info-sat (saturation).
Tim Sturgill - I understand the concern about privacy issue and what occurred with the start of Buzz, but I have some difficulty with the notion that such a wonderful free service (Google products) somehow equates to no personal responsibility. Any privacy "breaches" with the start of Buzz were totally preventable by beforehand looking at and managing your Google profile and reading the instructions that came with the Buzz start. Could Google have done better, sure.
The irony (having had my identity stolen in the hospital I work at and was a patient) -- I'll trust Google with private info, even health info, any day of the week over healthcare entities (without a lot of upfront scrutiny).9:15 pm
Ves Dimov, M.D. - The greatest benefit is that you can actually have a conversation on Buzz, include rich media included and use groups of people to collaborate.
Twitter is an inefficient way of exchanging one-liners. It's probably good for company customer service.
There is a big difference between Buzz and Wave. Buzz is simple micro-blog & network. Google Wave is a powerful collaboration platform in early beta.
Google Wave can replace both Gmail and Google Docs. It is not easy to comprehend for many users though and it is not very intuitive. On the other hand, Google Wave has the functionality but does not have the social network of Buzz and Gmail, hence both services are needed.
The information overload is another topic beyond the scope of this discussion. As I have mentioned, Twitter and Facebook are among the most inefficient ways of information consumption. Google Reader is one of the tools to work with large volumes of info but it is not very "social".
Tim Sturgill - Should have added, any new service (or add on to existing service) should be opt-in not opt-out. So on that score alone I believe Google blew it (but only to the extent you negate any personal responsibility or your persona on the web).
Ves Dimov, M.D. - I agree with you, Tim. Yet, obviously a lot of people feel differently about Google and online privacy in general and their scrutiny is welcome.
Tim Sturgill - Wave goes beyond the web, because of XMPP -- operate independent from the web. A very powerful transport capability is introduced with Wave.
I think that this is the best comment I've ever read about google's...blunder? It was completely preventably BY the account holder. People who are just moving away from their service for the sake of "privacy" maybe don't understand the options that are listed on the privacy pages or settings pages. Gmail, buzz, etc. are all no worse than ANY other provider (i.e. Yahoo, Microsoft, etc.) I don't really understand that issue...
ReplyDeleteTim Sturgill - I understand the concern about privacy issue and what occurred with the start of Buzz, but I have some difficulty with the notion that such a wonderful free service (Google products) somehow equates to no personal responsibility. Any privacy "breaches" with the start of Buzz were totally preventable by beforehand looking at and managing your Google profile and reading the instructions that came with the Buzz start. Could Google have done better, sure.
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@Tim, there was an opt in / opt out feature...if you clicked or navigated away from the buzz information page, buzz would have been disabled. Also, at the bottom of your gmail account there was a "turn buzz off" button since the first day it launched. Just like there was a turn chat off button.
Tim Sturgill - Should have added, any new service (or add on to existing service) should be opt-in not opt-out. So on that score alone I believe Google blew it (but only to the extent you negate any personal responsibility or your persona on the web).
Once again a great encapsulation and insight on the topic.
ReplyDeleteI like the concept of Buzz, am still to discover the power of wave ...but am very happy with the other services I am currently using.
I like the 'lack of restriction' with characters with Buzz, but am spending so much time away from a computer terminal and on the iPhone I find Twitter and FB apps easiest to use at present.
I will stop now, before I start to sound like an old fuddy-duddy refusing to move away from the 'old school' micro-blogging tools.
@Vamsi I don't believe your opt-out comment is entirely correct. I clicked away from the Buzz information page and was later surprised to see that Buzz had been activated and that I was automatically following some of my contacts (barely knew a few of them, in fact!).
ReplyDeleteThe "not now" button I clicked gave me the impression that I could read about it later. Once I noticed Buzz was active, I had to go to the bottom of my Gmail page to disable Buzz -- after I unfollowed everyone & blocked others.
How is this experience my fault? I don't even have a public Google profile. I do think Google is seeking too great a degree of data interconnectedness and I plan to phase out my use of as many Google products as I can.
I think this is an important topic for many groups of professionals. Talking about sensitive medical issues as anonymous online personas is one thing, but that anonymity disappears once your real name and location is tied to your posts and responses. This means that any doctor's posts can be tied back to him, and so his "one of my patients" becomes a real person who is being talked about.
ReplyDeletePersonally, I don't know how I feel having all my personal gmail stuff tied in with my online work stuff. Google buzz feels invasive to me at the moment, but I don't want to be left out of the learning curve, you know? I'm going to try it for now and see how it goes.
-Aurora @MDiTV